Hydraulic air bells



July 20, 1965 R. GALEAZZI 3,195,538

HYDRAULIC AIR BELLS Filed Oct. 24. 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 i ;32 3/ g 1 a55 l. 1 9": 3g 35 I l 1/ l l I i N8 INVENTOR NV 2 ROBERTO G-ALEAZZ) BYATTORNEYS July 20, 1965 R. GALEAZZI HYDRAULIC AIR BELLS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2Filed 001 24. 1960 INVENTOR GALEAJZZ) ROBERTO ATTORNEYS United StatesPatent 3,195,538 HYDRAULIC AIR BELLS Roberto Galeazzi, 27 Via Olrloini,La Spezia, Italy Filed Oct. 24, 1960, Ser. No. 64,333 Claims priority,application Italy, Oct. 28, 1959, 18,132/59, Patent 613,370 3 Claims.(Cl. 128142) This invention relates to hydropneumatic bells or hydraulicair bells for use on underwater breathing equipments or in lungs of thesemi-closed or closed type, in

which the polluted breathable gas (either air or mixture of oxygen andair or neutral gas) is led into a hydraulic air bell from which it maybe discharged in part.

' The hydraulic air bell according to the invention is an improvement ofthe bell disclosed in my prior US. Patent No. 2,693,179, the mainimprovement consisting in providing an hydraulic air bell of the kind ofthat described in my prior patent with a filter capable of eliminatingthe CO2 from the polluted breathable mixture exhaled by the lungs user.

Other improvement features of the new bell relate to the suspension ofthe bell as a whole and to the connections thereof with the breathingfittings (mouthpiece or mask).

The invention will be better understood from the following specificationin which two embodiments of air bells adapted to be fitted to underwaterbreathing equipments are described with reference to the attacheddrawings in which:

; FIGURE 1 shows diagrammatically a hydraulic air bell fitted to animproved underwater breathing equipment of the type forming the objectof my co-pending applicatiom'Ser. No. 64,498 filed October 24, 1960,Patent ment of gas-outlet valve employed in the air bells shown inFIGURES 2 and 3; and

, FIGURE 5' is a vertical longitudinal section through a thirdembodiment of air bell.

With particular reference to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, the improvedbreathing equipment forming part of my 'co-pending application, referredto above, usually is composed of the following parts:

(a) A source of breathing gas, usually in the'form of one or'morecompressed gas cylinders or steel bottles 1-101-201, the larger cylindercontaining a compressed neutraljgas (usually nitrogen) or compressed airand the other two 101 and 201, which may be of lesser capacity,containing compressed oxygen. The cylinders, which are provided withconventional control valves 44, 144, 244 are connected (in parallel whenthey are more than one, as in the case as shown) to a mixing anddistributing conduit 2 connected to a feed pipe 3 which is connected toa pressure reducer 4;

(b) A breathing fitting, comprising a mouthpiece or mask unit 7-8provided with the necessary feed cock 6 and valves as well as with theconnections to the gas ssource to the said hydraulic air bell 10 and, ifdesired,

toa snorkel or the like 45 (if a mask 108 is employed); (c) A hydraulicair bell 10 of the kind described and shown in my prior US. patentapplication No. 2,693,179, but provided with a gas filter, in the mannernow to be described;

, (d) The means for connecting the various parts into a unitarystructure.

Before describing in detail the improved air bells according to theinvention a general description of the im- 3,195,538 Patented July 20,1965 proved'universalbreathing equipment shown in FIGURE 1 of which theair bell forms a part will be now summarily described. I

With particular reference to FIGURE 1, the breathing ing equipmentcomprises a large cylinder 1 containing compressed air or a neutral gas(usually nitrogen) and one, or more conveniently two, small cylinders101-201 containing compressed oxygen. The cylinders are mounted insuitable holding means (not shown) including the metallic straps 28-128and the conventional means for carrying the whole as a knapsack. Thecylinders are connected in parallel by means of a conduit 2 which isconnected to a pipe 3 which feeds the gas mixture under high pressure(for example up to 150 atm.) to a pressure reducer 4, from which the gasis led by means of a flexible hose 5 to a stop cock 6 mounted on abreathing unit comprising a distributing chamber 7 provided with a pairof tubular necks 50-150 and a mouthpiece 8 (which latter might bereplaced by a conventional breathing mask 108). In the distributingchamber 7 opens the outlet of said cock 6 and on the necks 50-150 a pairof corrugated flexible hoses 9-109 are fitted, whose opposite ends areprovided with rotary air-tight joints on the inlet and outlet ends (asWill be better explained hereinafter) of a hydraulic air bell 10 of thekind disclosed in my said prior Patent No. 2,693,179 and provided withthe improvements according to the present application.

The hydraulic air bell 10 is attached to the unit mounting the gascylinders, including the straps 28-128 by means of a strut 29 attachedto the rigid member, for example to strap 28, and connected by means ofa pivot 30, at right angles to the vertical plane passing through thelongitudinal axis of the bell 10, to a strut extension 31 fastened tothe base of a U-shaped bracket 32 whose arm ends are fastened to thebell end attachment sockets 34, 134 of the said corrugated hoses 9-109.Thus the bell 10, which possesses a certain buoyancy, is allowed to rockabout two horizontal axes contained in two planes at right angles and isurged by the weights 39 to dispose itself with its mouth 309 downwardly,as clearly shown in FIGURE 1.

The bells 10 particularly shown in FIGURES 2 and 3 comprise asubstantially cylindrical shell 110 suspended horizontally on the saidtwo tubular necks 35-135 from said joint sockets 34-134 fitted at theend of the said corrugated hoses 9-109. The bell has on its cylindricalshell a wide opening which is urged down by weights 39. One of thetubular necks 35 opens directly into the bell shell 110 (FIGURE 2).

In the embodiments shown in FIGURES 2 and 3, in order to avoid that,under some circumstances, the water penetrates directly into the shell110 and wets the filter 36, I close the bell opening or mouth either, asshown in FIGURE 2, by means of a frame 37 carrying a perforated plate210 and an expandable membrane 38, or also, as shown in FIGURE 3, bymeans of a plate 310 carrying a box having a perforated bottom 41 and abellows-like top 42.

The bell shell 110 is further provided with one or more vents or outletvalves 40, permitting of exhausting the air from hell 10 whilst avoidingthe inlet of water into the said bell. One of the said vents or outletvalves is shown in FIG. 4 as formed by a resilient disc or like member140, made of rubber or like material, secured centrally of the bellshell 110 and adhering from the outside onto a crown of holes 240provided in the said shell 110.

The just-described hydraulic air bells are suspended In order 'toovercome this drawback, and at the jsame 7 of which the bell housing 110is pivotally, mounted."

At least'one of the stirrup arms-,(in' the case asshown,

the. arm 72:) is hollow and is"connected in a ,ccntralposition to an:upstanding hollow pivot 62 provided at its end of the breathingequipment shown in FIGURE 1, orfrom within the mask, as the case maybe,is'le'd through the hose 9, the tubular members 62, 72 and 7S and thewith a screw thread. On the pivot 62.. ajunction box 64 is tightlymounted byrneans of. an "inwardly projecting flange provided withapacking ring 66. Above this.

flange, a ballbearing 63, madei of seawater resistant ma terial ismounted and is retainedpressed against said boxflange by two inwardlyand outwardly screw-threaded nuts65165.' The junctionbox, in turn, isfastened in a' conventional way to the strap, shown in FIGURE 1, and isprovided at one" or both its sides with one or two attachmentsockets'for the corrugated hoseor hoses Si and/ or 199.

The'stirrup' 61 carries at its ends thebearings for the horizontalrocking axes of the bell 10.: w

In the embodiment as shown, the stirrup arm 67 is:

solid and has at its end a hole through whicha bolt 68 provided with athreaded end is passed. Onthestem of I this bolt, adjoini-ng'the end ofthe ann 67, a spacer sleeve 71 is inserted and. in an axial bore' of thebell shell 110 awasher 69 provided'with an outwardly projecting flangeis tightly'fitted. In this washer:69j. the end of the, bolt 68 isinserted and the whole is. retained in position by a nut-70 scr'ewed'onthe thread end ofbol't68.

The opposite arm 72 of thestirrup 61 is tubular and' I opens'in by itsinner end' in the hollow pivot 62and is provided at its outer end with.a rotatable joint 73'provided with a packing ring 74 and'tightly'mounted on a '7 tubular extension of a pipe section '75projecting outside the belljshell 110.

jOf course the stirrup arm 67 may be tubular and the suspensionat' theleft-hand half of the bell may-be exactly symmetrical to the right-handhalf.

In the improved bell 10 shown'in FIGURE-5 the casing orshell 1:10.:isdivided by a horizontal partition '81 into' an upper chamber 82and alower chamber'85.

The upper chamber 82 is filled wi h filtering material which may beintroduced or evacuated by removing the screw plug 56. The partitionhas'a hole 84 in its centre, the edges of which are provided with aseat-forming packing material, the said filtering material filling. thechamber 82 being preventedfrorn flowing down through the hole 84 by aperforated shield 87.

Thepartition has also one or two side holes 83, likewise covered by aperforated shield 86 and through which' open the inner endof thepipesection' 75 communicating 7 through the joint 73 and thetubular'members 72 and 62 with the corrugated hose or hoses 9 and/ or109. l 'j perforations of the shield 86' into the filter chamber 82 inwhich it is purified by the filtering material and comes through theperforations'of; the shield 87 and the hole 84 7 into the lower bellchamber.85,.where' it collects and may be again inhaled by flowing inreverse direction (see double arrow). 'If thezair accumulatesin excessin the chamber 85, it may bubble outthrough the openings 309.

' It, on the contrary the chamber85 is flooded with water, the float 89does no longer compress the spring 92-.which thus pushes, said floatuntil the valve member 9i) adheres against the-valve seat 91, thusintercepting the communication with the filter chamber 82.

When, for any reason, the bell is strongly inclined or with its stern insubstantially horizontal position, or even capsized, the spring92, whoseforce is in excess of the float'bouyancy, pushes the float 89 towardsthe opening 84, until the valve 90-adheres against the seat 91.

I claim: i

1 1; For use withflunderwater breathingequipment,an air bell havingashell of substantially cylindrical form and a horizontal axis, ahollow-pivot and, a second pivot for said 'shell. arranged substantiallyin correspondence.

o' f'theaxisfof said; shell and at opposite endsthereof, said .shellbeing provided with a pair'ofwide'mouth openings symmetrically spacedfrom the. central plane'transverse to the axis of the shell, a weightfastened in a central positionv between; said mouthopenings'. so as'tourge the mouth openings downwardly when the .bell is suspended on said,two' pivots, a partition. arranged substantially paralleltoand abovethe said cylindrical shell axis and having a central aperture and a"side perture, said apertures being covered by a perforated wall, airfiltering material within the shell and supportedon said partition,

a-bore'opening in the top of saidshell, a removable plug' closingi said.bore-opening and which'when removed permits adding .filtering materialin the space above said partition; a valve. seat formed on said centralaperture of saidipa'rtition, a valve below said. aperture; meansforurgingsaidvalveagainst' saidseat when water enters into the, lower partof the bell "below said partition to a predetermined level, astirrup-like suspension member having two arm'sxof which at least one ishollow, the ends of I "said arms being rotatably supported in saidpivots with said hollow arm communicating with said hollow pivot,

a duct connectingthe space above said partiti-onwith said hollow pivot,s'aid stirrup-like member having a vertical hollow'pivot communicatingwith said hollow stirrup arm anda box "rotatably mounted on saidvertical pivot and provided with atleast one hollownipple" forconnection 7 of: a flexible tube; I

The lower bell chamber 85 is provided, as usual, with 5 wide loweropenings 309 and with a central'weight' 39 from which a vertical stem 88projects upwardly. On this' stern a coil spring 92 is inserted, on thetop of which bears a float 89 slidably mounted on the freetop endof saidstem 88 and provided at its top with an annular valve member 90 adaptedto co-act' with the seat 91 when thc float is urged towards saidpartition 81'; The force said spring 92 is so related to the weight ofthe 'float 89 and to' its buoyancy that, with the bell upright, when thefloat is out of water, its weight is vsuflicient tocompress the spring92and to keep the valve member Qtlclear of its seat 91', but it is urgedagainst its seat when the 'float is immersed inwater, as well. as whenthe bell is not substantially upright. Furthermore the force of thesaidspring .is sufiicient to overcome the float'buoyancy.

The'operation of the above described bell is as follows: When the bellis upright and the valve 90 is clear of its seat 91 the exhaled pollutedair from themouthpiece r 2. An 'underwater breathing equipmentcomprising at least one: breathing gas cylindenmeans for holding the'cylinden a' face piece, a breathing ,fitting onsaid face piece, meansconnecting said cylinder directly and controllablyan'd only to saidbreathing fitting, apartially hollow stirrup-likemerribenhaving twocoaxial pivots forming part of a first swivel joint and-fastened to thesaidj cylinder-holding means, a hydraulic air bell formed of a shellhaving a mouth and suspended from ,said stirruplike member by saidpiyots'of the first swivel joint,- means V on said bell urging". thebell to a positionwith its mouth downwardly, a flexible tubular conduitconnecting said breathing fitting to the hell by means of a secondswivel joint, n air filter supported on fa" partition'in said bell"and'lonly partly filling the'bell so as to leave an ample freespaceabove the bell mouth, atleastone aperture in said partition'puttingthespace at interior of said .filter in communication with thefree space within said bell,

a vertically disposed valve under said aperture," a, spring urging saidvalve'to close said aperture, said valve having suflicient weight toovercome said spring when the bell is normally disposed with the valvein vertical position,

a float secured to the valve to buoyantly lift the valve and close saidaperture upon entrance of a predetermined amount of water into the bell,and at least one filter port in said partition in communication withsaid tubular conduit by means of the stirrup-like member and said firstand second swivel joints, said filter port and tubular conduit forming aregenerative air path entirely seperate from and independent of the airpath defined by said breathing gas cylinder and means connecting thecylinder to the breathing fitting.

3. An underwater breathing equipment according to claim 2 in which theair filter is arranged at the top of the bell shell and is separatedfrom the free space at the bottom of the bell by said partition, saidone aperture beinga central opening and said filter port being a sideopening in said partition, a tubular member putting in communication theinterior of said filter with said flexible tubular conduit by connectingsaid filter port to the hollow portion of said stirrup-like member, avalve seat fitted around said central opening, a stem fastened to thebell shell aligned with said central opening, said float and valve beingguided on said stem so as to be able to move towards or away from saidvalve seat, said spring tending to urge said float with its valvetowards its seat, the whole being so arranged that, when water in excessenters the free space of the bell, in Whatever position of said bell,the valve on the float is urged against the seat on the said centralopening to prevent the communication of the interior of the air filterwith the free space at the interior of the bell.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,693,179 11/54Galeazzi 128142 2,732,840 1/56 De Sanctis 128-142 3,005,453 10/61Wellenstcin et a1. 128142 FOREIGN PATENTS 534,908 3/41 Great Britain.

RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner.

HAROLD B. WHITMORE, Examiner.

2. AN UNDERWATER BREATHING EQUIPMENT COMPRISING AT LEAST ONE BREATHINGGAS CYLINDER, MEANS FOR HOLDING THE CYLINDER, A FACE PIECE, A BREATHINGFITTING ON SAID FACE PIECE, MEANS CONNECTING SAID CYLINDER DIRECTLY ANDCONTROLLABLY AND ONLY TO SAID BREATHING FITTING, A PARTIALLY HOLLOWSTIRRUP-LIKE MEMBER HAVING TWO COAXIAL PIVOTS FORMING PART OF A FIRSTSWIVEL JOINT AND FASTENED TO THE SAID CYLINDER-HOLDING MEANS, AHYDRAULIC AIR BELL FORMED OF A SHELL HAVING A MOUTH AND SUSPENDED FROMSAID STIRRUPLIKE MEMBER BY SAID PIVOTS OF THE FIRST SWIVEL JOINT, MEANSON SAID BELL URGING THE BELL TO A POSITION WITH ITS MOUTH DOWNWARDLY, AFLEXIBLE TUBULAR CONDUIT CONNECTING SAID BREATHING FITTING TO THE BELLBY MEANS OF A SECOND SWIVEL JOINT, AN AIR FILTER SUPPORTED ON APARTITION IN SAID BELL AND ONLY PARTLY FILLING THE BELL SO AS TO LEAVEAN AMPLE FREE SPACE ABOVE THE BELL MOUTH, AT LEAST ONE APERTURE IN SAIDPARTITION PUTTING THE SPACE AT INTERIOR OF SAID FILTER IN COMMUNICATIONWITH THE FREE SPACE WITHIN SAID BELL, A VERTICALLY DISPOSED VALVE UNDERSAID APERTURE, A SPRING URGING SAID VALVE TO CLOSE SAID APERTURE, SAIDVALVE HAVING SUFFICIENT WEIGHT TO OVERCOME SAID SPRING WHEN THE BELL ISNORMALLY DISPOSED WITH THE VALVE IN VERTICAL POSITION,